St. John Eudes
WE HAVE OUTLINED in the foregoing chapters numerous wonderful effects of the burning love of the Sacred Heart of our Saviour for mankind. But there is one effect of love that excels all the rest. It is expressed in the marvelous words rising from His divine Heart and spoken by His adorable lips: Sicut dilexit me Pater, et ego dilexi vos: “As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you.” (John 15:9)
Let us pause here a moment; let us weigh these words well: “I love you.” How sweet are these words falling from the lips of the sovereign Lord of the universe! How encouraging, how helpful, how consoling! “I love you,” our divine Saviour says to us. If an earthly ruler were to pay a visit to the house of the lowliest of his subjects and say to him: “I have come here expressly to assure you that I love you and that I shall let you feel the effects of love,” what joy it would be for that poor man! Suppose an angel from heaven or a saint or the Queen of saints were to appear in a church thronged with Christians and were to proclaim in a voice that all could hear, to one member of the congregation “I love you; my Heart belongs to you.” What transports of delight would thrill that privileged soul! Would he not die of joy? But here is much more than that. Here is the King of kings, the Holy of holies, the Only Son of God, the only Son of Mary, who has purposely come down here below from heaven to say to us: Ego dilexi vos. Ego, I who am the Creator of all things, I who rule the whole universe, I who possess all the treasures of heaven and earth, I who do whatsoever I will and I whose will none can resist, I love you. O my Saviour, what a rapturous word is this! Would it not be favor enough if Thou didst say to us: “I sometimes think of you; I look down upon you once a year; I have certain beneficial plans made for you?” But this is not sufficient for Thee. Thou dost wish to assure us of Thy love and affection for us, who are naught; for us, mere worms; for us, miserable sinners, who have so often offended Thee; for us who have so many times deserved hell: Ego dilexi vos.
But how does this adorable Saviour love us? Listen again to His sacred words: Sicut dilexit me Pater. I love you “as my Father hath loved me.” I love you with the same Heart and the same love as that wherewith I am loved by my Father. Now what is that love wherewith the Divine Father loves His Son? It is a love possessing four great qualities, which are found in the love of the Heart of Jesus for us.
First of all, the love of the Father for His Son is infinite, that is, without bounds, limits, or measure; a love incomprehensible and inexplicable; a love as great as the very nature of the Eternal Father. Measure, if you can, the extent and the magnitude of that divine nature, and then you will measure the magnitude of that adorable Father’s love for His Son; at the same time you will measure the greatness and the extent of the love of the Son of God for us, since He loves us with the same love as that wherewith His Father loves Him.
Secondly, the Father’s love for His Son is an everlasting love filling all the spaces of eternity. The Eternal Father has never been without that love for His Son; He loves Him continuously, without intermission, and He will love Him eternally. O my Saviour, how it fills me with joy to see Thee loved as Thou dost deserve! The…devils and the damned hate Thee, but Thou art no less lovable, and the Adorable Father loves Thee more in a single moment than all those wretches could hate Thee in a thousand eternities, if that were possible.
Now, as the Father loves His Only-begotten Son with an everlasting love, the Son of God also loves us with an everlasting love. This means that all the spaces of eternity before and after are filled with the love that He has for us. Hence, is it not true that if we had existed from all eternity, we should have been bound to love that gracious Saviour from all eternity? If we had a thousand years, ten thousand, a hundred thousand, yes, even an eternity to live on earth, should we not be bound to spend them in loving Him who loves us with an everlasting love? Actually, we have at most a few decades to exist on this earth, yet we waste them loving the world, the degradation and the trifles of earth. Ah, how guilty we are to have such ingratitude!
As our third reflection, we must remember that the love of the Divine Father for His Son is a tremendous love filling heaven and earth and even hell; in heaven, the Father loves this Son with the hearts of all the angels and all the saints; on earth their mutual love embraces all the hearts that belong to Him on earth; in hell, the Eternal Father loves His Cherished Son who, with the other Divine Persons, is present there, manifesting the same omnipotence as in heaven.
Similarly, our Saviour loves us with an immense love filling heaven, earth, and hell; heaven, for He inspires all its citizens to love us as themselves; He makes them sharers in the love He bears us, and He loves us through them. He loves the earth in three ways: 1. He loves us wherever He has being on earth; 2. He creates, preserves, and rules all things in the universe for love of us. This thought prompted St. Augustine to utter these beautiful words: Coelum et terra, et omnia quae in eis sunt, non cessant mihi dicere ut amem Deum meum: “Heaven and earth and all things on earth and in heaven cease not to bid me love my God.” 3. He prohibits all dwellers on earth, under pain of eternal damnation, to do harm, either to our goods, our reputation, our person or anything belonging to us; and He commands them to love us as themselves.
The boundless love of our Redeemer fills heaven and earth, and likewise hell; for He kindled the devouring fires of hell to inflame our hearts with divine love. We are impelled to love Him, when we consider that by our sins we deserved eternal torments if our Saviour had not delivered us by His death on the Cross. O my God, Thou dost love us everywhere, and we, ingrates, everywhere offend Thee. Let it be so no more, but make us love and bless Thee everywhere: In omni loco dominationis ejus benedic anima mea Domino. [In every place of his dominion, bless the Lord, O my soul. Psalm 102:22, Latin Vulgate]
In the fourth place, I could demonstrate to you further that, as the love of the Eternal Father for His Eternal Son is love in its essence, since He loves Him with His whole being, so also the love of the Son of God for us is love in its essence, since He is all heart and all love towards us and loves us with all His being. In other words, everything in Jesus, His divinity, His humanity, His soul, His body, His blood, all His thoughts, words, actions, privations, humiliations, sufferings, in short, everything that He is, has, and all His potentiality is bound up in loving us.
Here, I must mention one effect of His love that surpasses all the others. Louis Bail, a doctor of sacred theology, presents this fact in his learned and devotional work, Affective Theology and states that he found it in four passages of St. Bridget’s writings approved by three Popes and two General Councils. Our divine Lord and His holy Mother revealed to St. Bridget that, while on the Cross, He suffered such keen, piercing, violent and terrible pains that His adorable Heart was rent, broken, and shattered: Cor meum crepuit prae violentia passionis. “My heart,” says the adorable Saviour to the saint, “was utterly filled with pain, all the more because it was of a most fine and delicate nature; the pain went from my Heart into my nerves, from my nerves back to my Heart: it kept on increasing so that my death-agony was prolonged while I was thus immersed in suffering, I opened my eyes and saw my dearest Mother overcome by a sea of anguish and tears, which pained me more than my own sufferings; I also saw my friends overwhelmed with sorrow. With this torture my Heart was actually rent by the force and fury of the pain; and then it was that my soul went forth from my body.”
Those are the words of our Saviour to St. Bridget. In a later revelation He said: “There are few persons who can imagine with what pain I remained fastened to the wood of the Cross, my Heart being broken and shattered by its violence: quando Cor meum crepuit.” Let us now listen to the Blessed Virgin who revealed on two occasions to the same saint that, as the death of her Son drew near, His Sacred Heart was rent by the violence of the pain: Cum Cor prae violentia dolorum rumperetur.‘
I also find a similar reference in the tenth exercise of the Intimations of Divine Holiness of St. Gertrude, where she thus addresses our Redeemer: Deificatum Cor tuum in morte pro me rupit amor. “Thy divine Heart was rent and broken in Thy dying, by the excess of Thy love for me. This made Thee suffer such violent tortures for love of me that Thy adorable Heart was broken by the force of the pain; so that I may say that Thou didst die of pain and love for me. This can be repeated by each one of us with equal truth.”
O Almighty God, who hath ever heard of such a death? O sinful man. wilt thou not open thy eyes to behold the love Thy Saviour has for thee? O heart of man, wilt thou not be touched by such burning love? Wilt thou not surrender? not be converted? Wilt thou not love one who hath such love for thee? Filii hominum usquequo gravi corde? [O ye sons of men, how long will you be dull of heart? Psalm 4:3, Latin Vulgate]
How long will thy heart remain buried in the mud and slime of earth, in the mists and vanities of this world? Wouldst thou not love Him who is wholehearted in His love for thee and who, if thou wouldst but love Him, promises to give thee an eternal realm? That is all He demands of thee; for after saying, “I love you as my Father hath loved me,” He adds: Manete in dilectione mea: “Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love: as I also have kept my Father’s commandments and do abide in his love.” Then He again says to us: Haec locutus sum vobis, ut gaudium meum in vobis sit, et gaudium vestrum impleatur: “These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled.”
Wouldst thou, therefore, give great joy to thy Saviour and so act that thy heart may be always joyful and glad, thus beginning thy paradise on earth? Then love thy precious Saviour above all things, and thy neighbor as thyself. That is all that thou hast to do. O Jesus, I give Thee my whole heart. O Mother of Jesus, to thee also I give it entire, with all the hearts of my brothers and sisters in Christ; offer them, I beg, to thy Son, praying Him to take full, entire and eternal possession of them.
O Creator, I owe Thee my body and soul, because Thou hast given me Thy body and soul, Thy life and Thy very self. What do I owe Thee, and what shall I give Thee in return for all those priceless gifts? If I had millions of lives and gave them to Thee a million times over, each hour, that would be as nothing. Since I am so indebted to Thee that I cannot ever requite Thee, come Thyself as executor of my estate and take all that I have. I offer Thee all the faculties of my soul, all the feelings of my body, all my members, my whole heart, sacrificing myself entirely to Thy adorable will. I ask not for eyes except to contemplate what Thou dost will me to contemplate, nor for ears except to hear Thy divine words and to obey Thee. Let my tongue be torn from my mouth if I use it but to bless Thee; let my heart burst asunder rather than fail to love Thee. May I lose my memory, if it be not to remember Thee; and may my mind fail in all things, if it be not to know and to admire Thee. May my hands be cut off, if I use them not in Thy service. I ask not for feet except to seek and follow Thee. I will always exercise my will as Thou wouldst have me. Thy good pleasure is my sole desire. Do with me what Thou wilt, since for my sake Thou hast done with Thyself more than I would have dared to wish or to desire. I surrender myself entirely into the hands of God, my Eternal Father, who dost desire my welfare more than I do myself, who alone knows what is best for me and alone can obtain it for me.
The Sacred Heart Surrounded by Scenes from the Life of Christ, Cuzco School, 18th century
An excerpt from The Sacred Heart of Jesus by St. John Eudes. This work is in the public domain, but you can purchase a copy of it at this affiliate link.
St. John Eudes was born in France in 1601. Ordained into the Oratory of Jesus and Mary, his primary apostolate was preaching parish missions – over 120 of them over the course of his life, always with a team of confessors and catechists to minister to the parishioners. Pope St. Pius X named St. John Eudes “the father, doctor, and apostle of liturgical devotion to the hearts of Jesus and Mary.” He created the first Feast of the Sacred Heart in 1672, just one year before St. Margaret Mary Alacoque had her first apparition of the Sacred Heart.